Guzmán — who also serves as the president of Mex@Penn — said the society has connected her with other leaders on campus.

“The point is to meet people who you wouldn’t have otherwise met,” she explained. 

Unlike traditional campus greek life organizations, Penn’s senior societies have a less formal recruitment process that takes place during a prospective member’s junior or senior year.

Guzmán explained that the selection procedure for many senior societies — a process known as being “tapped” — involves current society members referring people from the junior class who they believe would be “a match” with the organization. She added that students can also be tapped through alumni or by word-of-mouth, emphasizing that “you don’t have to know them personally.”

For Friars specifically, Guzmán said interested juniors “have to be either in a leadership pool or [be] very well-accomplished in a specific area of campus.” 

She added that while she does not believe that Friars is a “super exclusive” society, the group’s 40-person cap helps members “make a genuine connection with everyone in the group” and ensures “everyone feels supported by our community.”

Activity-based societies

Penn’s activity-based societies, including the Osiris Senior Society, Kinoki Senior Society, Bell Senior Society, and Order of Omega, connect students with similar academic or career interests. Unlike traditional senior societies, these groups were mostly founded more recently.

Bell is composed of seniors interested in entrepreneurship and technology, while Kinoki caters to students hoping to pursue careers in the film and entertainment industry. Order of Omega is a chapter of a national organization recognizing leaders of fraternities and sororities.

Osiris invites “senior leaders and outstanding members of the arts community.”

College senior and Osiris president Idil Secil told the DP “it’s really important that whoever puts in effort into performing arts or visual arts at Penn can be recognized.”

“It’s just a group where you can connect with other members without competing with each other or being isolated to your own group,” she said, adding that “it’s definitely influenced my senior year.”

Secil said that Osiris began using a “tap-based” recruitment process this semester, where “tapped” candidates are invited to events that allow them to get to know the society’s current members. 

She added that while Osiris is an “arts community,” the society hosts a variety of social events beyond strictly artistic activities that enable members to get to know each other. 

“It’s not just them performing or being involved in their art, but more like a friendship or a brotherhood that is built, which I think is really impactful,” Secil said.

Identity-based societies

Penn also has societies for students who identify with certain groups — such as the Carriage Senior Society for LGBTQ+ students, Cipactli Latinx Honor Society for Latino students, and Shamash Senior Society for Jewish students.

The Onyx Senior Honor Society — founded in 1974 for Black students — is the oldest identity-based society at Penn. College senior and Onyx president Aisha Ali said that members have “proven themselves to be devoted to not only just University tradition, but also within citizenship and diversity throughout the city of Philadelphia as well.”

She outlined how the group’s tenets of “humility, humanity, and heritage” are reflected in the group’s membership and programming.  

“We were founded with Black excellence in mind, and we hope to carry the legacy of our ancestors,” she added.

Along with monthly social gatherings, Onyx hosts monthly community service initiatives — such as preparing food for community fridges in Philadelphia, collecting donations for food drives, and packing toiletry kits. Onyx members also volunteer at Bartram’s Garden and work with Ase Academy, a mentorship program for middle and high school students in Du Bois College House. 

She described the recruitment process as  “very accessible and equitable” because rather than using a “tapping” process, any member of the Black community can apply for Onyx membership. Prospective members can choose to apply either in their junior spring or senior fall, but Ali added that the process can be “highly selective” depending on how many applications the group receives. 

College senior and Onyx vice president Marissa Lassiter said getting to meet more members of “Black Penn” through the society has been “something that I’ll remember forever.” 

“There’s so many different sub sectors of what it means to be Black on Penn’s campus, and so meeting all those different people […] has been really, really beneficial,” Lassiter said. 

The Oracle Senior Honor Society is for students of Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage at Penn. College senior Darlene Leohansson said what drew her to Oracle the most was that “it’s a space to recognize leadership on campus, but specifically Asian American Pacific Islander leadership.”

“It’s nice that there’s a space to connect with people with similar backgrounds or to have this joint identity,” Leohansson said. “Even if all the activities we’re doing are not necessarily connected to Asian American or Pacific Islander identity, just sharing that background does add a sense of comfort and a reminder of home for a lot of us.”

Similar to Onyx, Leohansson said Oracle has an “open recruitment process” and is “extremely cognizant of exclusivity and diversity within the activities that we do and the members that we take.”

She explained that the group mainly hosts social events because “everyone in Oracle has experience being the one at the helm of a student club or student organization here at Penn.”

“So we started to be a space where people can meet other leaders, but also just appreciate spending time with other people, especially during our senior year,” Leohansson said.

School-based societies

School-based societies represent members of Penn’s four undergraduate schools. They include Gryphon Senior Society for students in the College of Arts and Sciences, The Lantern Society for students in The Wharton School, The Nightingales for students in the School of Nursing, and Hexagon Senior Society for students in the School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Founded in 1910, Hexagon is the oldest school-based senior society at Penn. Engineering senior Beccan Simon said the society’s “biggest function” is partnering with the Office of Academic Services to lead tours of the Engineering School buildings to prospective students.

Besides tours, Simon described the society as a “network” and “a community of engineers” that occasionally hosts social and fundraising events. He added that Hexagon uses a “tapping process,” where members reach out to juniors who they believe “would be good fits for both the touring component and the community component.”

“I’ve gotten a lot closer with a bunch of other engineers through [Hexagon] so I would say that’s been very special,” Simon concluded. “On the other side, I think the process of just getting to be a resource to prospective students and showing all that Penn has to offer in your tour is a really fun way to reflect on your journey and then also pay it forward.”